FILTERED WATER.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 10, 17 November 1883, Page 3

FILTERED WATER.

Some people place much reliance upon niters for the purification of the water they drink. This, I think, is a great mistake. The filters give muddy water a clear appearance, but in nine cases out of ten the water is more impregnated with organic germs after it has been filtered than it was before being passed through. The materials of the filter, instead of destroying the germs, become a nursery for all sorts of noxious organisms. Il is not the visible impurities of water which render injurious. The horse, which is a very good judge of what to drink and what to avoid, will slake its thirst with satisfaction at a clay hole, while it often turns away with disgust from water that is perfectly limpid. I doubt if a horse would relish water which has been passed through an old domestic filter. Man, more sophisticated, is content with what pleases the eye. If I were compelled to use a filter I should like to have one that could be baked or boiled once a week. If there is not such a thing it ought to be invented. Nothing less than the fire test should be considered efficacious in regenerating a foul filter. Boiling the water is immensely more efficacious than filtering it; the boiling clearsit considerably, as well as frees it from organic contamination. The subsequent aeration of the water is desirable but not indispensible. Usually a new filter seems to work very well for three or four months, but after the water has once become unpleasant no amount of ordinary clearing can no any good to the filter. Some are made to take to pieces, but this is only a palliative, not a remedy. As a rule, there is more safety without than with a filter.